Cyber attacks are something that we must worry about. Hackers are constantly after your personal information and this can be harmful to your personal life with things like banking information, social security numbers, and passwords to accounts that have sensitive information like social media accounts, emails, among others. These hackers can also be after information that can potentially be damaging to your business or career. If you or your business holds sensitive information regarding your clients/customers then their safety is also in your hands. If this isn’t alarming enough then here are a few statistics regarding cyber attacks in 2020: 

• About 5% of companies’ folders are properly protected
• 2019 was the worst year, ever, for security breach activity 
• Security breaches have increased by 11% since 2018 and 67% since 2014

Microsoft recently also conducted a study to analyze cyber attacks. What they found was that the attacks are getting more and more sophisticated. This means that they are harder to detect and easier to fall for. There are ways to look for phishing attacks that could be harmful to you, your clients, and network at large. There is one sure fire way to make sure that you know who is accessing your accounts and when: Two-Factor authentication. This will allow you to give access in real time to anyone trying to log in to your accounts. Microsoft conducted another study saying that “Our data shows that enabling MFA would alone have prevented the vast majority of successful attacks,”. This means that if two factor authentication was enabled on these accounts that people would have been aware of the breach immediately and could have prevented it themselves. 

Importance of Two-Factor Authentication

If you have already taken the necessary secure password steps (LINK PREVIOUS BLOG) then you are already on the way to making sure your accounts are as secure as they can be. Two factor authentication won’t keep hackers away forever, but they will have a much more difficult time getting into your accounts and accessing your information. You will be alerted the moment someone is trying to access any of your accounts and you will be able to prevent access if it isn’t you. 

Two factor authentication is not the savior of cyber security, but it is one of the best ways to protect your accounts while allowing you to have easy access to all of your own information.